Transcript Document
Imagining New Ways to Live:
The Art of Thinking Critically
The quality of your life
is determined
by the quality
of your thinking
Discuss: To what extent do you think this is
true? Explain.
The quality of my personal and professional
life is determined by the thinking I do in
my personal and professional life.
The quality of ________ is determined by the
thinking I do about ___________.
To significantly improve the way we live,
both personally and professionally requires
that we take our thinking seriously.
The greater command we have of our thinking
the greater command we have of our lives.
What do you know about thinking?
What do you know about the connection
between thinking and living a rational
life?
What have you learned about how you
think?
Did you ever study your thinking?
What information do you have, for
example, about the intellectual
processes that occur as your mind
thinks?
What do you know about how to analyze,
evaluate, or reconstruct your thinking?
Where does your thinking come from?
How much of it is of “good” quality?
How much of it is of “poor” quality?
To what extent are you in control of
your thinking?
How do you control your thinking?
Do you know how to test it?
Do you have any conscious standards
for determining when you are
thinking well and when you are
thinking poorly?
Have you ever discovered a significant
problem in your thinking and then changed
it by a conscious act of will?
If anyone asked you to teach them what you
have learned thus far in your life, about
thinking, how explicit would your answer
be?
To truly take command of the
thinking that controls the quality
of our lives requires that we
understand thinking at a deep
level.
This can be done only through
many years of committed
practice.
We should place the development
of our thinking at the very
center of our lives.
When you understand critical
thinking,
you can take any part of the theory of
critical thinking and, following out the
implications of that theory, apply it to
your personal or professional life in
order to live more productively or
effectively.
In this session, we will focus on
some parts of the theory of
critical thinking, and test this
idea.
Webster’s Dictionary of synonyms, 1951
The term ‘critical’
“when applied to persons who judge and to
their judgments, not only may, but in very
precise use does, imply an effort to see a
thing clearly and truly so that not only the
good in it may be distinguished from the
bad and the perfect from the imperfect, but
also that it as a whole may be fairly judged
and valued.”
In pairs – using 25 Days Book
Silently read p. xviii.
Then discuss as many of these problems in
thinking that you can - in the time allotted
for this activity.
Discuss examples of problems in life that
result from these problems in thinking.
Discuss examples of problems in your own
life that result from these problems in
thinking.
Thinking that
analyzes thinking
Thinking that
assesses thinking
critical thinking: disciplined,
self-guided thinking
aimed at living a rational life.
thinking that
combats
its native
egocentricity
Thinking that
develops within itself
intellectual habits
standardselementstraits
Focus on intellectual standards as theory
applicable to personal and professional life
Working in pairs.
Read together pp. 22-23 in the
Questions Guide.
After reading each section, discuss
how you can begin actively bringing
these standards into your personal and
professional life.
Deeply probing thinking using the
intellectual standards
Working in pairs
Person A and Person B
Person B is the questioner
How and where do you tend to use the most
critical thinking in your life?
Focus primarily on clarifying thinking and
probing for depth.
Switch roles
Using the Elements of Reasoning
Working in pairs
Analytic Thinking Guide
Work through pp. 14-21, two pages at a time.
Read silently each page and then discuss how you
can actively bring the questions on each page, or
questions like these questions, into your personal
and professional life.
Developing Intellectual Traits, Dispositions or
Virtues
Work in pairs
Using the How to Study and Learn Guide
Silently read each section, then briefly
discuss
1. your understanding of that trait, and
2. your answers to the questions in that
section.
5 minutes per trait
Understanding Innate Human Pathologies that
Impede Intellectual Development
Humans often engage in irrational behavior. We
fight. We start wars. We kill. We are selfdestructive. We are petty and vindictive. We act
out when we don’t get our way. We abuse our
spouses. We neglect our children. We
rationalize, project, and stereotype.
We act inconsistently, ignore relevant
evidence, jump to conclusions, and
say and believe things that don’t make
good sense. We deceive ourselves in
many ways.
We are our own worst enemy.
And yet we are capable of
developing as rational persons,
of living an ethical life,
of contributing to the creation of a
just and critical world.
There are two overlapping and interrelated
motivating impulses behind
human irrationality.
Human egocentrism:
the natural human tendency “to view
everything within the world in
relationship to oneself, to be selfcentered” (Webster’s New World
Dictionary)
Human sociocentrism:
most simply conceptualized as group
egocentricity. To define sociocentricity, we
might take Webster’s definition of
egocentricity, substituting group for self.
Consider: Sociocentric thinking is the natural
human tendency to view everything within the
world in relationship to one’s group, to be
group-centered.
Human sociocentrism:
most simply conceptualized as group
egocentricity. To define sociocentricity, we
might take Webster’s definition of
egocentricity, substituting group for self.
Consider: Sociocentric thinking is the natural
human tendency to view everything within the
world in relationship to one’s group, to be
group-centered.
Irrational/Rational selves within each of us
Discuss with a partner
Can you think of any instances of
egocentricity in human life?
Discuss examples of selfishness and
narrow-mindedness.
Human egocentricity is best understood as
having two basic tendencies.
One is to see the world in self-serving terms,
to constantly seek that which makes one
feel good, that which one selfishly wants,
at the expense of the rights and needs of
others.
The second primary tendency of egocentricity is
the desire to maintain its beliefs, to see its views
as the correct views.
It is manifest in rigidity of thought.
And it views its irrational beliefs as rational.
Think for yourself:
Beginning to understand egocentrism
Think of the most self-centered person you know. This
may be someone who is fundamentally selfish or
arrogant. Describe the person’s behavior in detail.
Based on the person’s behavior, how would you
describe her/his thinking? What types of feelings does
s/he display? What is the person motivated to do? To
what extent does the person use other people to get
what s/he wants? To what extent does the person
exhibit sincere concern for the thoughts and feelings of
others?
Discovering Prejudices in Your Beliefs
As egocentric thinkers we see ourselves as in possession of the
truth. At the same time, we form many beliefs without the
evidence to justify them. In other words, we form many
prejudices (judgments before the evidence). If this is true,
using our rational capacities we should be able to begin to
unearth some of our prejudices. In an attempt to begin this
process, complete the following statements:
1. One of the prejudices I have is …(think of generalizations
you tend to make even though you don’t have the evidence
to justify them. It can be about anything you please: about
a religion, about atheists, about men, women, homosexuals,
heterosexuals, etc…Put your prejudice in this form: All x
are y, as in all women are ??, or all men are ??.)
2. A more rational belief with which I should replace this
faulty belief is…
3. If I use this new belief in my thinking, my behavior would
change in the following ways…
Recognizing When Other’s Egocentrism
Calls Out Your Egocentrism
Think of a situation you were recently in where you felt
yourself becoming irrational in reaction to someone’s
else’s irrationality. Complete these statements:
The situation was …
I reacted in the situation by …
In thinking through the situation, I realize that a more
rational way to respond to the other person would
have been …
Cartoon – agree with me or be wrong
The Truth
Headache
A Guide for Improving Every Aspect
of Your Life
Review the Table of Contents:
25 Days Book
Working in pairs
Take turns reading and paraphrasing the
quotes on p. xi – 25 Days Book.
(State)To me this means…
(Elaborate) In other words…
(Give example from real life)
To exemplify…
A How-To List for Dysfunctional Living
25 Days Book
Working in pairs, take turns reading the list on
p. xxii. After reading each one:
1. Discuss the extent to which this is a problem for you,
and
2. Articulate the opposite of each dysfunctional
behavior.
3. Then, for each “opposite” behavior, discuss how a
person would live differently when engaged in this
opposite behavior versus the behavior on the list.
Focus on two intellectual standards:
Clarity
Relevance
25 Days Book
pp. 16-18 Be Clear
pp. 19-21 Be Relevant
Read and teach to one another in pairs
Be Fair
25 Days Book pp. 10-12
Begin to think about the extent to which you
are fair.
Silently read and then discuss these two
pages. How can you use this “idea” in
your life and your work?
Taking Initial Ownership of the
Ideas
Working in pairs,
Person A takes pp. 44-46 – Don’t Be a Top
Dog
Person B takes pp. 47-50 – Don’t Be an
Underdog
Study for five minutes, taking notes.
Add a Powerful Idea
Working alone, design your own powerful
idea, using the format in the 25 Days Book.
Include all of the main parts in the formula:
“Be on the lookout for”…
Summary of the concept/problem
Strategies for internalizing and using this
strategy.
In pairs discuss:
How can you use this book in developing
as a thinker – how do you plan to use it?
How might you use it with students to
foster transformation of their thinking?
Coming Up With Your Own Plan
Write out a plan for developing yourself as a
thinker. Include:
A one-year process for development
Monthly Strategies
Daily Strategies
Work through the logic of a
question
Take an important question you would like
to address, or have been trying to address
in your personal or professional life.
Write out the logic of the question using
the template on p. 22 in the analytic
thinking guide.